by Dale Mayer
EVAN
SEALs of Honor, Book 8
Dale Mayer
Books in This Series:
Mason: SEALs of Honor, Book 1
Hawk: SEALs of Honor, Book 2
Dane: SEALs of Honor, Book 3
Swede: SEALs of Honor, Book 4
Shadow: SEALs of Honor, Book 5
Cooper: SEALs of Honor, Book 6
Markus: SEALs of Honor, Book 7
Evan: SEALs of Honor, Book 8
Mason’s Wish: SEALs of Honor, Book 9
Chase: SEALs of Honor, Book 10
SEALs of Honor, Books 1–3
SEALs of Honor, Books 4–6
Table of Contents
Title Page
About the Book
Complimentary Download
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Author’s Note
Complimentary Download
About the Author
Also by Dale Mayer
Copyright Page
Back Cover
Everyone considered Evan a bit of a wild card. Even Megan. Little did she know he was carrying the torch for her and all the rest was camouflage.
When she transfers to the West Coast to join the new helicopter division, their lives collide once again.
Another SEAL unit is under attack and needs their help, but when the attackers turn on Megan, she’s the one in danger.
With the enemy closer than they’d like to believe, Megan and Evan struggle to piece together what happened to their friends.
They need to figure it out fast before there are more victims. Starting with them.
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Chapter 1
What a shit storm.
As ops went, this one had hit the toilet in a big way. And in Mexico to boot. Two SEALs down. Two more injured but ambulatory and the shit just kept on dripping. Levi and his unit were in trouble – Evan Wilson was part one of the extraction team. The second half was the helicopters flying in.
Gunfire ripped through the uneasy silence. Evan sank lower. In order to make the extraction Evan’s team would have to clear and hold a place for a helicopter to land. And that wasn’t easy. This was a first for him. He wasn’t as new to the unit as Chase and Brett, but he couldn’t be called an old timer yet either. He’d have said seasoned until this mess. Now he realized that for all the good times, he’d been relatively lucky as far as missions went.
Because when SEAL ops went bad – they went deadly.
But they weren’t going to leave any of their men behind. Especially not Levi.
Sweat dripped down his forehead. High on the landing atop the plateau he’d been picking off the enemy below one by one. There was one more. He just needed a good shot. Swede and Cooper were getting closer. Once clear they could run in and pick up Levi. Although knowing him, Levi wouldn’t leave without Stone. But then Stone and Levi were two of the same. Four of them had come over and ran into trouble immediately. Evan and the eight-man unit he was part of had been dropped in to get them out.
Word was reinforcements on the enemy side were minutes away and carrying rocket launchers while their military helicopter was six minutes out. Then again, those were the odds they loved. They did shitty like the rest of the world did well.
It should be their motto.
Another head popped up. There. He took the shot and moved on. He didn’t need to see the result, he was a hell of a sniper and that had been an easy one. Now…he shifted when he heard Markus behind him. “Left.”
Shit. He lined up again. Was there no end to these assholes?
He took another shot. Seeing Swede and Cooper on the move, two of the biggest men in the unit, he sprayed the area to give them a free run.
“Move, move, move,” he whispered as he mentally ticked off the minutes before the helicopter arrived.
He could hear it in the distance.
A hawk’s cry ripped through the air. Damn well time. Hawk and Shadow were moving through the enemy taking them out one by one as silent and as lethal as only those two could.
He waited, the dust settling…the air still, then he caught a movement on the right. He looked through his sight. Bull’s-eye.
Wap, wap, wap.
The noise of their ride home echoed in the distance. He gauged it at four minutes out. A long four minutes. And he had a job to complete before then.
There’d been no enemy fire for two minutes. Then Hawk and Shadow were down there. Not much would escape them. Those that did, he took out. They were less than a hundred yards from the landing site but up an exposed hill. He had six men behind him.
The other two of Levi’s team were both injured. Mason and Dane were trying to stabilize them to be airlifted out. Brett and Chase were on the far side, holding their position.
Wap, wap, wap.
Three minutes.
Another bird cry in the sky. Good. Swede and Cooper had their men.
Now to get them all back and in the air safely.
He hadn’t seen anything heavier than automatic rifles yet but could hear vehicles approaching. With the damn rocket launchers if the intel was any good. The last thing he needed was to have the helicopter go down with all of them on board. That was not a statistic he was willing to be a part of.
Dane crawled up beside him. “Status?”
“They are on the return run. No enemy fire in four minutes.” He paused. “The men?”
“Tough and in rough shape. One is almost done.”
Shit.
Dane slipped back to the injured men.
Done usually meant physical injuries that killed his career. Everyone here knew that was the end of the line. The worst nightmare for them all.
He could only hope that Levi and Stone were in better shape but knew that was a pipe dream. Levi was a personal friend of his. He’d seen the lines deepen on his face over the years. He needed to get out before it killed him. Maybe after this.
And suddenly the men were racing toward him. He sprayed the area as Swede carried Stone and Cooper packed Levi. Wap, wap, wap.
They raced past Evan.
Helicopters approached from behind.
Come on, show yourself. I know there is one more of you bastards. No way am I letting you take any of us down at this point.
Wap, wap, wap.
The dust flew as the helicopter lowered to the ground. Men scrambled to get the injured onboard. Mason called. “Moving out.”
Evan didn’t move, his gaze searching the territory. He’d be the last one. One prick was still out there and now the first of several vehicles had arrived. It sat…waiting. Well, so the hell was Evan. The men would need less than two minutes to scramble aboard, secure the injured and lift off.
He figured he needed thirty seconds.
There.
He hoped they had a damn good pilot. He didn’t want to be left behind.
But neither was he going to let his team be taken out because he missed something.
Time.
He lifted onto his heels, crouched and ran, his eyes scanning.
He saw the bastard. Now loading a rocket launcher on his shoulder. Evan lined up the shot and fired. The man’s head flung back as Evan flung himself into the helicopter.
“Go, go, go,” he yelled, lifting for another shot.
The helicopter rose, the movements faster than expected, and so damn smooth he knew who the pilot was. Didn’t that figure?
It was Ice. Her real name was Icelite, some kind of Nordic druid name. But she was known as Ice for her cool calm under pressure performance. Was her new co-pilot with her? Megan? His heart immediately said yes.
If he were honest he was damn glad to have Ice. And Megan.
It’s just he’d rather have Megan under him.
Like she’d been three years ago. They’d parted ways after one hell of a hot and heavy weekend. He’d gone on to bury his sorrow and regret that he hadn’t moved to make it more than that ever since, and she’d ended up engaged. What the hell. Thankfully she’d come to her senses.
Ice, now she was a whole different matter. Her name had been linked with Levi but no one asked – ever.
“Nice shot,” Dane helped him to his seat when the helicopter leaned to the side as it turned and headed home.
He looked around at the rest of the men and mentally counted them off. “We’re flying heavy.”
“Full load plus one. Can’t be helped.”
Evan nodded and closed his eyes.
“Ice will get us home safe.”
“Who’s she flying with?” Evan asked in an even voice, hoping Dane wouldn’t read into the question. But he knew. His heart already knew. He was such an idiot. Why didn’t he realize he’d had a good thing at the time? And move to make it more than a fling? Just think of the years they’d missed. They’d parted ways amicably, but he’d never been able to find the same magic with anyone else. Reinforcing that she was the only one for him.
Then again, maybe it was all in his head. The memory better than the reality. Who knew? Unless he had a chance to get her back in his bed and see if that magic was actually what he remembered, there was no way to know.
But he wanted to find out.
Chapter 2
Megan watched her radar screens while the helicopter buffeted to the side as Ice slipped away from the attack. Megan had nerves of steel but Ice – well she was like none other.
Unless you mentioned the name Levi to her in private. Then her nerves would shatter. But in public she’d never show a reaction. Megan, on the other hand, well she’d spent her life wearing her emotions on her sleeve. She’d been working hard to change that.
The two of them made a great team even knowing the two men that bothered them were both on board. One had just shot the enemy to shit, and the other had been shot to shit. She could see the white-knuckle grip of Ice’s hands, but not everyone would recognize the signs.
Megan was only holding her own because she had seen Evan get on the helicopter alive and well. And who knew she still cared so much? Now if they could navigate the hell out of here…
“Clear,” Ice muttered under her breath to the helicopter. “Take us home, sweetheart.”
Megan cast her friend a sidelong look, seeing the strain around her mouth. “He’ll make it. He’s tough.”
“He will. He is.”
Nothing more. Then again what could Megan say? This day sucked. She’d seen a lot in the seven years she’d been in the service. But nothing ever prepared one for losing friends and never for losing them in front of you.
“Evan okay?” Ice asked.
“Yeah, the hotshot walked through fire as usual,” she muttered. She wouldn’t say the two women were close friends, but the job demanded trust and that required a little getting to know one another. She considered Ice a friend and hoped the relationship would deepen.
“Takes skill.”
“And attitude.” Megan didn’t know anyone else who could do what he did and always smile about it. Hell, several of the SEALs never smiled. Then again, many had nothing to smile about. At least that was before the Keepers were born. Evan was one of Mason’s group now, but wasn’t a member of the Keepers yet. That wouldn’t happen until he found his true love. And that was just unbelievable to her. He’d been the opposite of a Keeper when she’d known him. He was a player. A swinger. A man about town with the best of everything – and all to hide the emptiness inside. But he couldn’t see it. Didn’t want to see it. And if he did, he didn’t seem capable of knowing how to change it.
Then her knowledge of him was three years old. She’d been back East since then, but gossip traveled fast and far and often.
Apparently the luck of the Keepers was still holding with Cooper and Markus being the latest casualties. At least that’s how some guys referred to them. In truth she thought they were all jealous. She was.
The easy short-term relationship scene was good for both sexes for a lot of reasons, but it got old quick.
At least it had for her. She’d even had a two-year relationship after her sheet-dancing weekend with Evan.
She’d been approved for the helicopter-training program and sure as hell wasn’t going to turn that down. And Evan had made no talk of anything longer than the sweat drying off his back, so when she was given the ship-out date she took it and ran, but like an elastic stretched too far, she’d taken the first chance for a transfer and returned to the West. Only she hadn’t considered Evan as part of her motivation. Until now.
As soon as she arrived she’d been paired with Ice and that part of her life had stabilized and moved forward in a solid way. She loved her work and the people she worked with.
She’d been happy. Then she’d seen Evan again… And everything came rushing back.
The helicopter straightened out and flew a steady course to the ship. The miles were easy now that they were clear of enemy fire.
She loved her job. As in really loved her job. She knew the men in the back felt the same but when was it done? When was it time to walk away and do something different? She had no children. Her parents were both military, so it wasn’t like she’d had much choice. She’d been groomed to go in this direction since birth, although the flying was her own particular bend to the scenario. But it felt right. God she loved the freedom. And knowing that she was needed. That there were people – good men doing dangerous jobs counting on her – well that just added to it.
“You good?” Ice asked.
“Perfect.”
Which was their code word for life sucked but they went on anyway.
Megan sighed. She turned her gaze away from the tight lines around Ice’s mouth. “Perfect is what we do,” she muttered.
“Amen, sister.”
For the next hour they flew through the brilliant sky up the coast back into US airspace. They should have been out of enemy airspace and safe at this point, and there was nothing untoward in the sky. It was a smooth flight homeward. If you ignored the fact that four of their own were badly injured in the back.
“Update?” Megan asked through her headset.
Mason answered, “Two stable, one critical and Levi is holding.”
Ice could hear the answer too.
She frowned. She knew the risks. They all did. But was there anything more painful than knowing there was a road one should have taken but hadn’t and now could lose the opportunity before being given a second chance?
“He’s strong,” Megan said calmly. “He’ll pull through.”
“He might but Stone is going to lose his leg.”
“And I know he’s going to think that’s the worst thing that could happen to him, but you and I both know it’s not.”
“No, but this is his life. It’s his whole purpose for existing,” Mason said in a low voice. “There’s no returning to the unit after this.”
“Well, if the others make it, ch
ances are there are going to be four who need some career counselling.” In the background she could hear someone swearing and cussing. “What’s the commotion?”
“Levi screaming at Stone to hold on.”
“Yeah, that sounds like him.” She’d only met Levi a few times but his character wasn’t hard to miss. Another question burned her throat. She shouldn’t ask. She wanted to desperately but there was no way she wanted the others to know she cared. She’d seen him jump in but there’d been a lot of firepower at the end. He might have been hit.
“He’s fine.”
Startled, she caught her breath back. Then had to ask. “Who?”
And gasped when he said, his voice equally low, “Evan.”
Shit shit.
“Good,” she said calmly, her heart pounding in shock. “I’m presuming all your unit are?”
“They are,” he said equally casually.
She sighed. “Thanks, Mason.” She knew he’d understand.
She glanced over at Ice to see a small smile playing at the corner of her lips. “What are you smirking at?”
Ice gave her that flat stare she was so famous for. “Nothing worth smirking at here,” she said, her tone of voice cool. But then she ruined her hard ass look by adding, “It’s well past that point.”
“You’re a fine one to talk,” Megan said with spirit. Ice was a hell of a woman, but they hadn’t become friends by backing down from each other. No woman in the military was short on backbone. It grew thicker and deeper and stronger with the territory.
The ship came into view. They were two minutes away. They’d made good time. But was it fast enough for the injured men? Christ she hoped so.
Within minutes they were down and organized chaos took over the back of the helicopter. When she was done with her last check through she pulled her helmet off and exited her side. Instantly, she was engulfed in the crowd. A heavy hand grabbed her by the upper arm.
“What the…”
She spun to find Evan tugging her back. Startled, she drummed up a smile. “Hey, nice shooting back there.”